


Only On Tuesdays and Thursdays

by quellthefire



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Artist Steve Rogers, Fluffy Ending, Lonely Tony Stark, M/M, Meet-Cute, Texting, Tony is impatient and bossy because he cares, Waiting Rooms, War Veteran Bucky Barnes, War Veteran Rhodey, War Veteran Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-09-07 00:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20300350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quellthefire/pseuds/quellthefire
Summary: Tony had come to every appointment.In the first couple months Rhodey had practically thrown a hissy fit. He’d complained about not needing a babysitter, said Tony being there made him feel even more self conscious than he already was.No-powers AU in which Tony and Steve meet-cute in a VA hospital waiting room.





	Only On Tuesdays and Thursdays

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gilestel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilestel/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Come Here Often?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7665883) by [gilestel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilestel/pseuds/gilestel). 

> This is a gift based off of gilestel's gorgeous, funny comic for the Captain America Iron Man 2019 Midyear Exchange. Please take a look at her work, she's so talented and I was thrilled to get matched to write a fic for her! 
> 
> I had such a fun time playing in this AU and I really hope you like it!

Tony had come to every appointment. 

In the first couple months Rhodey had practically thrown a hissy fit. He’d complained about not needing a babysitter, said Tony being there made him feel even more self conscious than he already was. He’d griped the whole ride over every time, meanwhile Tony hummed whatever AC/DC song was stuck in his head that day, pretending not to care. It didn’t really work.

This was all was part of their routine.

It had gotten especially bad when Tony, disgusted by the state of the technology at the VA hospital had tried to get Rhodey switched to a state-of-the-art private hospital. He’d refused to talk to Tony for days, speaking only to Pepper or JARVIS, and eventually Tony had relented. 

Besides, Rhodey didn’t need to know that the sudden grant the VA had received to update their rehabilitation wing came from yours truly. 

He’d given Tony a look when they entered for the first time since the remodel, but hadn’t asked him if he was responsible, so Tony took it as an acceptance of his peace offering, so to speak.

And Tony really did like Dr. Cho. She was funny and didn’t bullshit them about Rhodey’s progress. And she was damn good at her job. Everyone here was actually pretty fantastic, now that he thought about it. Maybe Rhodey had been right about this place. They just needed a little financial support, and Tony was more than happy to provide that if it meant his best friend was getting great care.

Which was why it was so damn annoying that Rhodey had started insisting Tony stay in the waiting room. He had kept trying to keep Tony at arm’s length since his accident, and it was frustrating as hell. His friend had never been great about accepting help, but fuck, he didn’t have to outright tell the nursing staff to bar Tony from coming back into the patient area for godssake.

He’d even offered to build him some badass cyborg legs, which he made sure to remind him of today, but Rhodey had just rolled his eyes and told him to stop hovering as he wheeled himself down the hallway Tony was banned from. 

So Tony did what he did every time since Rhodey had insisted on this new rule. He plopped himself down in a hard, drab grey chair and pulled out his phone.

He should be reviewing contracts Pepper had been hounding him about. He should be delving into the new test products that R&D had been working on for him. He should be at least checking his email, which had an alarming number of unopened messages.

But instead, he was staring at his phone’s home screen, fingers hovering over apps to be selected. But he just kept staring, unsure of what to do next.

He was itching to get back there and ask Helen about Rhodey’s progress, but even Dr. Cho seemed on board with barring Tony from coming back with Rhodey. She’d given him a gentle smile as she had explained that while the hospital was incredibly grateful for his generosity, that part of his friend’s recovery process was letting him do things on his terms. In the most polite way possible, she basically told Tony to fuck off until Rhodey was ready to let him be more of a part of his rehab process.

So Tony sat in the waiting room, well, waiting.

It was empty. It was blessedly quiet. But he felt like he should be doing more.

Tony sighed and opened his email app, deciding to start there.

He cringed at the number of unanswered emails, and then scrolled mindlessly through the message previews. Who gave a fuck about stock values and the board of directors when his best friend, really his only friend besides Pepper, was on the other side of this wall, struggling to get through basic physical therapy exercises?

He clicked out of that app, returning to the home screen. 

He wanted someone to talk to. Pepper was in an all-day board meeting, and he couldn’t text Rhodey, for obvious reasons. 

He really had no one else to talk to, and he didn’t want to think too hard about how pathetic that made him.

So he stared at his phone, contemplating trying his luck to sneak past the nurse on guard duty. They’d already caught him trying to sneak back once a couple of weeks ago, and made it a habit to have someone on the lookout now. They was annoyingly supportive of Rhodey’s wishes.

He saw a form fill his peripheral vision and then suddenly there was a person sitting down next to him, on his left side. Tony gave them a glance, startled at what he saw.

Not just a person, a Greek statue of a man, all blonde hair and muscles and chiseled jaw. He was staring intently at the pages of a book, but Tony noticed his eyes weren’t moving across the page, he was just staring at the same passage of text, as if willing it to do something, anything.

It honestly reminded Tony of himself, who had taken to staring blankly at his phone so he looked like he wasn’t sulking. Meanwhile Tony’s mind had been blank, save for thoughts of _I should be doing something to help him, literally anything besides sitting here like an idiot, acting like this is normal and okay._

This gorgeous guy had the same blank, pained expression that Tony imagined he probably had whenever he was in this waiting room, and he cleared his throat, wanting to speak but uncertain.

There weren’t many times he felt uncertain, but this was definitely one of them.

Then again, they were in a large empty room with lots of other chairs to choose from, and this guy had chosen the one next to Tony. That had to mean something, right?

So he steeled his nerves and spoke aloud. “Come here often?”

The blonde man turned to look at him, surprised, but with a kind smile. “Only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, except for holidays. You?” His eyes crinkled in the cutest way, and Tony hadn’t realised how blue they were until now. 

“See, I used to be a Monday and Wednesday kinda gal, but we recently had to make the Tuesday/Thursday switch to accommodate another doctor’s schedule. Is it worth it?” Tony joked back.

“Monday/Wednesday Nurse Eileen makes better coffee, but Tuesday/Thursday Nurse Mark is more thorough about warm-ups and cool-downs for physical therapy, so I’m a fan.” He held out his hand to Tony, closing his book as he did so. “Steve, Steve Rogers.”

Tony grasped onto his warm, large hand, noting how soft it was, and the title of his book, ‘The Private Lives of The Impressionists.’ _ Interesting,_ Tony thought to himself, _ I wouldn’t have expected that from a guy who looks like he spends all his time at the gym._

Steve looked at him expectantly, and for a moment, Tony just blinked at him, forgetting to speak.

“Errr, Tony. Stark. I’m Tony.” He could feel heat rising in his face. _What is wrong with me? I’m the CEO of a multibillion dollar business and I can’t handle a cute gym rat who has a sensitive side? Rhodey’s right, I am losing my touch._

Steve just smiled that kind smile again, but Tony thought he could detect a hint of a smirk in there too, like maybe he knew just how flustered he’d been making Tony.

“I’m here for my best friend Bucky. We served together. I made it back unscathed, but he wasn’t as lucky. Been coming here ever since we got back to the States,” Steve offered, turning in his seat to better face Tony.

“Rhodey. Uhm. I’m here for my best friend Rhodey. He got injured while serving too. We’re hoping he might be able to walk again, but it’s not looking great so far. I was in Afghanistan, on business, and I got pretty badly injured there. I can only imagine what he’s going through though...” He rubbed at his chest, it still twinged with pain sometimes.

Steve winced in sympathy, and said, “Yeah, Bucky’s missing an arm, but there’s not really a chance it’ll grow back, so they’re looking into prosthetics options.” He looked uncertain, worried that his joke may have crossed a line or hit a nerve, but his expression relaxed when Tony burst out laughing.

He looked more at ease now, and he and Tony chatted for a while about Bucky and Rhodey’s respective progress, sharing notes on which meds had best kept the nerve pain at bay, and what the current prosthetics and wheelchair option limitations were.

Tony’s mind was already racing on how he could build a better arm than what was on the market right now. Hell, he could probably make them a lot cheaper than any other too. He hadn’t even met Steve’s friend yet, but his fingers were itching to start drafting an arm that could fix the issues Bucky had been having with fine motor movements. 

He told Steve about how Rhodey had responded when he tried to take him to a different hospital. 

Steve had laughed hard at that, “I know exactly what you mean, Bucky threw a fit when I suggested using my savings to have him see a specialist at a private hospital. I gave up on that idea real fast, so we’ve been coming here ever since. Plus Dr. Cho is great. We’re lucky to have her here. I still worry so much about him, but the work they’ve done to help Bucky is incredible.”

They continued talking, and Tony found himself settling into the ease of the conversation. Steve talked a bit about their friend Sam, who worked at the hospital, and about his hobbies. He was a painter, apparently. Had always loved art as a kid, but didn’t start pursuing it seriously until after coming back from the war. _That explains the book, _ Tony thought.

Tony told him about SI, about how he’d rather spend his days developing new technologies than trying to please elderly board members in shareholder meetings. He’d been thinking about offering the CEO job to Pepper anyway, and that was starting to seem more and more appealing.

By the end of the hour-long appointment, Tony had honestly forgotten about trying to sneak back to check on Rhodey. 

Steve was right. Dr. Cho and her team were fantastic, and now that they’d gotten some extra support from that anonymous donor, they were able to properly help their patients the way they’d been trying to all along.

Before Tony knew it, Rhodey was rolling back through the waiting room door, looking a little sweaty from the last hour of hard work, but pleased.

“Rhodey-bear! You survived without me!” Tony exclaimed upon seeing him.

Rhodey just sighed and said, “Somehow I found a way.”

Tony grinned at him but turned back to Steve, suddenly sad that their conversation was at its’ end.

“See you on Tuesday?” Tony said.

Steve looked a little sad too as he spoke. “We’ll be here.”

“I’ll bring coffee next time. You’re right, Nurse Jessica can’t brew coffee for shit,” Tony replied, before turning back to join Rhodey. “Well, let’s head home. You wanna grab cheeseburgers on the way?”

They debated which restaurant to go to, and as always Tony advocated for the cheapest, greasiest hole-in-the-wall gem while Rhodey insisted he “just wanted a salad for once, please Tony, please just eat something green,” as they left the waiting room.

“Wait!” Steve’s voice called out, and Tony turned to see him jogging down the hall to meet up with them. “Uhm. Here’s my number, if you ever want to talk more about… everything.” His face was beet red, and Tony guessed it wasn’t from running to catch them.

Tony gave him a wink as he accepted the slip of paper, which looked like it had been ripped from a blank page in Steve’s book. He was feeling a little more back to his cocky self after seeing Steve blush so earnestly

He stared down at the numbers scribbled in tight, sharp writing. It was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in a while. “Thanks. I’ll text you for sure.” 

They waved goodbye, and Steve jogged back to the waiting room to find his friend Bucky waiting for him, if the soft sounds of, “Oh my god, Stevie, were you flirting with that guy?” were any indication.

Tony pressed the page to his chest, feeling warm and happy and very okay in this moment. He typed Steve’s number into his phone, saving him as new contact. _Is now too soon to text him? What about when we get home?_

Rhodey gave him a sideways glance as they made it to the elevator, “So are we gonna talk about the gorgeous hunk of a man who just gave you his number?”

“No, I don’t think I will, honey-bear,” Tony hummed happily.

“Fine, but we’re getting salads for lunch,” Rhodey insisted.

“Fine by me,” Tony said, already too distracted by mentally planning out his first message to care what they ate.

Maybe now he’d have someone new to text when he got lonely. It was a nice thought, and Tony hoped Steve might one day become more for him. 

All he knew was he couldn’t wait until next Tuesday’s appointment.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much! Please make sure to check out their incredible art, and let me know if you liked this fic!
> 
> xoxo, quell.


End file.
